Trees from above – reforestation by plane

Britain has a long history of deforestation and almost ran out of timber during World War I. A commission was established to make the country more self-reliant after the war, but this still led to a decline in native woods. The Scottish Highlands are a good example as more than 90% of the trees are gone. Many lands were never replanted and today still lay barren. Now they may be reforested by war planes.

Forests are to be created by dropping millions of trees out of aircraft. Equipment installed in the huge C-130 transport aircraft used by the military for laying carpets of landmines across combat zones has been adapted to deposit the trees in remote areas including parts of Scotland.

Flying 1,000 feet above the ground at 130 knots allows 3,000 cones to be planted in one minute. Interesting to read a real-world version of swords-to-plowshares.